NEWBURY, Vt. — A school bus driving northbound on Perini Road in Newbury crashed on Tuesday afternoon with students on board, according to a news release from the Vermont Department of Motor Vehicles.
None of the 21 student passengers were injured. A paraprofessional also on board sustained minor injuries.
The bus, driven by Cynthia Clemence, 72, did not collide with anything, but instead partially tilted on its passenger side after veering too close to the edge of the road, the release said. The right wheels descended into a ditch, causing the bus to lean.
Renzo Chumbes, a paramedic for Woodsville Ambulance, arrived on the scene 15 minutes after receiving the emergency call, he said in a phone interview. Police were already there.
By the time he arrived, students had been transported to a different school bus parked about 150 feet away. The paramedics visually confirmed that none of them were hurt.
The paraprofessional with minor injuries was treated on the spot and did not require a hospital transport, Chumbes said.
A message left for Heather Lawler, superintendent of the Orange East Supervisory Union, which includes Newbury, was not immediately returned on Wednesday.
Stephen Krueger, a wrecker operator at Sabil & Sons, said in a Wednesday phone interview that he pulled the bus back onto the road around 5 p.m.
Krueger noted that the bus had not fully tipped over, but rather was leaning far on its side, so that someone could touch the ground through one of the right windows.
The bus Clemence drove when the incident occurred did not have any technical complications that could have contributed to the crash, a subsequent inspection found, the release said.
Krueger said he suspects Perini Road’s “aggressive shoulder” caused the slide-off, considering its steepness.